While Bob Costas and the like enjoy making countless references to the Wolverine Swimming Club, someone ought to let them know that the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center is home to this years’ NCAA Champion Wildcats.  Unfortunately, they didn’t quite repeat their championship performances in Beijing.

Joel Greenshields (Canada) and Ryk Neethling (South Africa) failed to make it out of their heats for the 100M Free, though Lyndon Ferns (South Africa) will be in the Thursday finals.  Jean Basson (South Africa) fell just short of a medal in the 200M free behind some dude named Phelps, as well as Tae-Hwan and Peter Vanderkaay.  Other somewhat disappointing finishes included Lacey Nymeyer (USA) who didn’t escape her heat in the 100M Free (CORRECTION: Nymeyer made it through her preliminary heat but was not able to advance to the finals), Jake Tapp (Canada) who failed to advance in the 100M backstroke, and the South African team of Neethling, Roland Schuman, and Lyndon Ferns, who finished seventh in the 4×100M Free Relay.  To make matters worse, Amanda Beard shocked the world by failing to advance out of the preliminaries today in the 200M breaststroke.

On the bright side, though Nymeyer’s performance in the 100M Free was disappointing, she has become the first Wildcat to medal at this years games as she was part of the Silver medal winning women’s 4×100-meter relay team! Rau Raur!  Also hope remains for Wildcats as Ferns will be competing in the 100M Free Finals.

Although the performances didn’t go as swimmingly as expected, at least nobody drowned.

Outside the pool, Kim Glass helped the distraught women’s volleyball team to a 2-1 record in Group A.  In the final game against Venezuela, she turned in an impressive 9 spikes, 3 blocks, and 8 contested shots performance.  You’d think after a performance like that, it would “bump” her into the conversation for Robert Golden comparisons.

As always, be sure to check back as Track and Field is racing up on us. And obviously the ‘Cats are more than represented on the softball diamond. So far Caitlin Lowe has hit first inside the park home run in Olympic history, Jennie Finch has pitched four perfect innings, and USA is undefeated.

(Photo: Lacey Nymeyer/AP Photo)

In the past few weeks both Softball and Baseball were making their respective Championship runs, but sadly both came to a close. The Softball team reached the College World Series but were not able to get the three peat as they dropped their first two in Oklahoma. Baseball on the other hand were one game away from Omaha, but could not pull it out against top seeded Miami. Both teams were so talented and serious title contenders, but in the end lack of Coach Candrea for Softball and lack of clutch hitting proved to be the downfall. Still huge congrats to great seasons, and there is doubt they will be back again soon.

No, we are not talking about the NBA or NHL. We are talking about NCAA softball! And behind the flamethrowing arm of Taryne Mowatt, the ‘Cats are looking to go for the 3-peat and dynasty status. It all starts this Saturday (after a weather delay) in the Metropolitan New York area at 6:30 AM (Tucson Time) against Canisius College. So for all you Metro ‘Cats out there head over to Hofstra University and cheer on your Wildcats.